John Fielder, famous Colorado photographer, dies at 73

By The Denver Gazette August 12, 2023 | updated 3 years ago

FILE PHOTO: A portrait of John Fielder is captured as a double exposure in-camera at his home in Summit County. (Chancey Bush/The Denver Gazette)

John Fielder, Colorado’s preeminent nature photographer, has died at the age of 73.

His daughter, Kay Fielder, confirmed his death to multiple media outlets. She said he died on Friday after a struggle with pancreatic cancer.

Gov. Jared Polis released a statement mourning the photographer.

“I am saddened by the loss of John Fielder, who captured Colorado’s iconic beauty during his 50 years as a nature photographer. His unique talent and work allowed him to showcase our state to millions across the world and he will be dearly missed,.

“My condolences to his family and friends. I hope that we can all follow his example to appreciate and preserve our outdoor lands.”

Fielder may best known for his “Colorado 1870-2000” photograph book series that he made in partnership with History Colorado. In that series, Fielder matched photos taken by William Henry Jackson more than a century earlier.

In January, Fielder donated his Colorado photography to History Colorado. The museum will be home for a collection of more than 7,000 photos distilled from 200,000 he made since 1973, and which are now available to the public for personal and commercial use.

Just last month — on July 22 — the History Colorado Center in downtown Denver unveiled a new exhibit called “REVEALED: John Fielder’s Favorite Place.”

Visitors are invited to virtually explore “a location that few have ever experienced,” according to a news release, “a location that Fielder feels is the most sublime in all of Colorado.”

The location is Sunlight Basin deep in western Colorado’s Weminuche Wilderness. Fielder has long spoken fondly of the wilderness, considered the state’s most remote reaches.

Choosing a favorite place, Fielder said in July, “was merely a function of evoking” what he calls his “geologic psychology.”

He explained that with his favorite sensations of nature above treeline: “the sounds of cascading water, the steely taste of snowmelt, the cold sensation on the fingertips of water just off the snow, the smell of the alpine, tundra flowers wafting across my face.”

On his website, Fielder said he first visited Colorado at the age of 14 during a school field trip from North Carolina:

“In all my life, I have not forgotten my first sight of the Rockies rising up before me over the plains. I was simply smitten by this wall of snow-capped peaks above a treeless plain. And the word C-O-L-O-R-A-D-O, it was the most poetic name for a place I had ever heard. I realized at that moment that someone or something had guided me to this place, and that I belonged here for the rest of my life.”

His awards included the Sierra Club’s Ansel Adams Award in 1993 and the Aldo Leopold Foundation’s Achievement Award in 2011. He was the first individual to be awarded the latter award.

Fielder leaves behind two daughters Ashley and Katy, and six grandchildren. John lost his wife Gigi to Alzheimer’s disease in 2005 and their son J.T. in 2006.

Fielder requested donations be made to Sierra Club, Conservation Colorado, Colorado Open Lands and Save the Colorado.

The family will conduct a private memorial service at a later date.